Spacecraft Control Toolbox

New in Release 2017.1

Over 75 new functions were added in Version 2017.1 and updates to dozens of existing functions were made to improve their performance and expand their applications. We expanded our support for heliocentric missions. This includes functions to compute solar eclipses in heliocentric orbits, heliocentric sphere of influence, heliocentric trajectory plotting and thermal models for heliocentric spacecraft. Several new component models were added for use with the CAD modeling functions. These included a Liquid Apogee Engine, curved tubes and triangular trusses.

We have added all new star identification functions. These are based on a pyramid star identification algorithm using four stars for a definitive match during lost-in-sky conditions. The algorithm provides reliable star identification with almost any star catalog and in any orientation. We have updated image processing algorithms for star centroid determination.

New attitude determination demos and algorithms were added for mixtures of different sensors, such as sun measurements, earth chords and magnetic field measurements. You can compare the performance of extended and Unscented Kalman Filters. A new second order guidance law was added for planetary and lunar landing that provides a simple and effective algorithm for landers.

ThrusterColdGas, a new model for a cold gas thruster propulsion system

EclipseHelio, heliocentric eclipse calculation using any set of planets

PlanetYear, length of planet years using the Astronomical Almanac

PlotPlanetOrbit

SCPro

A fun pointing demo, NadirSunPointingDemo, that points at nadir when the spacecraft is
over the continental United States and at the sun otherwise

SpacecraftEstimation

New UKFOrbitEstimation orbit estimation demo

New pyramid star identification algorithm, StarIDPyramid, used in functions StellarAttDetUKF and StellarAttDetEKF and demos AttDetUKFSim and AttDetEKFSim

Thermal

New BraytonIdeal function and related demo

Change List

The following sections list those functions which have been added or relocated since Version 2016.1.

Directories

The AeroUtils module was renamed to AerospaceUtils. A new ComponentModels folder was added to Common and models were moved there from the Graphics folder. Common also has a new GUIs folder, with additional files from the Graphics folder.